Joint Steering Committee for Revision of AACR. JSC Format Variation Working Group: Fourth Interim Report

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1 4JSC/Chair/71/Rev/Chair follow-up/5 15 April 2003 To: From: Subject: Joint Steering Committee for Revision of AACR Ann Huthwaite, Chair, JSC JSC Format Variation Working Group: Fourth Interim Report Attached is the fourth interim report of the Format Variation Working Group, prepared by its Chair, Jennifer Bowen.

2 JSC Format Variation Working Group Interim Report, April 2003 During the past six months, the Format Variation Working Group (FVWG) has primarily been working on the two documents that were submitted to the Joint Steering Committee in February for discussion at the April 2003 JSC meeting. To supplement those documents, this report lists the status of the various parts of our Terms of Reference, a brief summary of our activities, and suggestions from the FVWG on our future activities. 4JSC/Chair/71/Rev/Chair follow-up/4: Status Report on the Chapter 25 Subgroup. This document represents a first attempt to address some of the issues surrounding Items 2-4 in our revised Terms of Reference (4JSC/Chair/71/Rev). In particular, we have suggested areas where we feel that the rules are not sufficient for expression-level collocation and recommended changes to these rules. We have also suggested what we feel is an appropriate level of guidance in determining when an item in hand represents a new expression (section 4.2). Assuming that the JSC would like to see us continue to work in this area, we envision reworking this document as many times as necessary to create final rule revision proposals for Chapter 25. From reading the comments from JSC constituents so far, we anticipate needing to expand and reorganize the rules for expression-level collocation considerably for the next version of the document. This document does not fully address Item 4 of our Terms of Reference: to determine if the rules in Ch. 25 could be restated to identify distinction between different types and different functions of uniform titles (collocation vs. differentiation). The FVWG would appreciate additional guidance from the JSC about the ways that we might accomplish this in the next version of the document. Since the document submitted in February covers only the general rules in Chapter 25, the group suggests that once the rule revisions covered in this document are near their final form that the group should also examine the specialized rules in Chapter 25 and propose appropriate revisions. 4JSC/Chair/71/Rev/2/Chair follow-up: Interim Report from the Form of Expression Identifier Subgroup. This document is in response to our additional Terms of Reference (4JSC/Chair/71/Rev/2, dated Oct. 20, 2002). While these ideas are still at a

3 preliminary stage, the group would appreciate guidance from the JSC concerning whether this particular approach has merit before embarking upon any further work in this area. Experimental Database: Other Areas for Further Work Because the FVWG has been unable to create its own experimental database, we have instead attempted to work closely with vendors and others who have created databases utilizing some elements of FRBR. Our approach has been to look at each system and identify those features that seem to work well in creating intelligible, collocated catalog displays. Ultimately we plan to compile a list of criteria for evaluating online systems that organize bibliographic data according to the FRBR model. As we carry on a dialogue with these vendors, the comments that we have provided to them on their systems have been solely from individuals on the Working Group, as opposed to official responses from the Format Variation Working Group. Our goal in this process is to learn as much as we can from the experiences of the vendors, and begin to address one unanswered part of our Terms of Reference: Is collocation in catalogue displays sufficient to explain relationships to users? To our knowledge no users studies have been done on any FRBRbased databases that can inform our work, and the group is uncomfortable with attempting to answer this question at this stage of our work. Vendor Liaisons One of the outcomes of the York JSC meeting was a request from the JSC that the Working Group put out a call to solicit liaisons from various system vendors who are working on FRBR. This call was submitted in December to the MARC List, the FRBR list, Web4LIb and SysLib-L. To date the Working Group has established liaison relationships with seven vendors (see attached list), and have leads on three others (Dynix, Blackwell, RLG) who have indicated some interest. Many of the liaisons were able to attend the OCLC/FRBR meeting at ALA Midwinter in January. While most in attendance (other than OCLC and VTLS) were not actually doing any development related to FRBR yet, they all indicated that they were very interested in learning more about it. The Working Group feels that it is important to maintain these relationships so that we can: 1, keep vendors informed of the direction that rule revisions to support FRBR are going, 2. encourage vendors to support FRBR-related development in their systems and 3. so that the FVWG can study any implementations of FRBR that result.

4 MARBI Discussion Paper Last summer at ALA Annual when MARBI was considering the FVWG s Discussion Paper, ( MARBI requested that we provide them with a follow-up paper as our work progressed. At a point when JSC assesses that the Chapter 25 revisions have received enough acceptance, the FVWG would like to follow through on this request. Give the preliminary stage of our work on Chapter 25, we suggest that a brief status report on our recent activities (akin to this report) might be a more appropriate response for ALA Annual in June as opposed to our submitting another full-fledged discussion paper of the issues at this time. FVWG Membership Peter Haddad retired from the National Library of Australia and resigned from the FVWG in February. In the final weeks before his retirement, Peter put in a large amount of work to bring together the Status Report from the Chapter 25 Subgroup, which he chaired. The FVWG acknowledges the extra effort that Peter expended to complete the first phase of that subgroup s work before leaving his post. To retain our representation from all JSC constituent countries, the FVWG suggests that the JSC appoint at least one other member to the group from Australia.

5 JSC Format Variation Working Group System Liaisons for FRBR January 23, 2003 Digibis Xavier Agenjo Bullón Director de Proyectos de la Fundación Hernando de Larramendi Claudio Coello, 123, 4º Madrid España Tel Fax Endeavor Information Systems, Inc. Verne L. Coppi V.P. Development Endeavor Information Systems, Inc E. Devon Suite 382 Des Plaines, Il Phone: (847) x2611 Fax: (847) (or: Harry Samuels?) Ex Libris Inc. Helen Gbala Senior Librarian Ex Libris (USA) Inc North Sheffield Ave. Chicago, Il x (fax) (mobile) heleng@exlibris-usa.com Innovative Interfaces, Inc. Claudia Conrad Product Manager (Cataloging) Product Management Department Innovative Interfaces, Inc Shellmound Way Emeryville, CA (USA/Canada) (Fax) cconrad@iii.com Senior Consulting Database Specialist OCLC, inc Frantz Road Dublin, OH richard_greene@oclc.org Research Libraries Group (to be determined) The Library Corporation Ted Koppel Senior Product Manager The Library Corporation Research Park Inwood, WV phone: ext. 368 fax: toll free: tedk@tlcdelivers.com VTLS, Inc. Vinod Chachra President, VTLS Inc Kraft Drive Blacksburg, VA Phone: (540) Fax: (540) chachrav@vtls.com John Espley Director for Design VTLS Inc Kraft Dr. Blacksburg VA HOT-VTLS espleyj@vtls.com OCLC, Inc. Rich Greene